Close to 290 grams of “ice” and marijuana were seized from Diaz, 51, by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and CNMI Task Force in Aug. 2001.
This reporter was referred to the Board of Parole after a staffer from the Corrections facility confirmed that Diaz, 51, had been released from jail.
Diaz was granted parole on March 12, 2010.
But a Parole staffer said other details, or a copy of the parole document, could not be provided since Parole officials were not available or were off-island.
When sought for comment, Press Secretary Angel Demapan said the governor’s office was not privy to the decisions of the parole board.
But Demapan said it is the government’s policy to go after illegal drugs and their peddlers.
Attorney General Edward Buckingham told the Variety in a phone interview that he served as counsel for the Board of Parole.
Its chairman is Ramon B. Camacho, a former police major who now chairs the Saipan and Northern Islands Municipal Council.
“I will forward your inquiry to his office so he can provide you information on this case,” Buckingham said in his e-mail response to this reporter.
Some local lawyers and probation officers interviewed by this reporter said it was “interesting” to learn that a defendant sentenced to 25 years imprisonment without parole received parole.
Court records showed that on April 22, 2002, a jury found Diaz guilty of trafficking a controlled substance and criminal mischief.
On Aug. 28, 2002, the court sentenced Diaz to 30 years imprisonment, of which five years were suspended.
For the criminal mischief, Diaz was sentenced to one year imprisonment, all suspended.
Diaz filed an appeal, claiming that the trial court incorrectly applied the sentencing guidelines to his case.
On Oct. 15, 2003, the CNMI Supreme Court remanded the case, with instructions, to the trial court.
On March 31, 2004, Diaz was re-sentenced by then-Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama to serve 25 years imprisonment without parole, with credit time served from Aug. 29, 2001.
Diaz was also ordered to pay $2,000, while the sentence imposed for his criminal mischief conviction was remained.
In an earlier ruling, Lizama found Diaz guilty of illegal possession of a controlled substance, a lesser included offense; illegal possession of a controlled substance, marijuana; reckless driving; hit and run/failure to stop and give assistance and/or information; fleeing or attempting to elude police officer; and unsafe backing.
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